Lifting-bar for wagons



(No Model.)

J. S. LETOURNEAU. Lifting-Bar for Wagons.

Patented May 4, 1880.

WITNESSES ATTORNEYS.

NFETERS. FHOTO-LITHOGRAPHER. WASHINGTON, D C.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOSEPH S. LETOUBNEAU, OF TUCKER, ILLINOIS.

LlFTlNG-BAR FOR wAcoNs.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 227,274, dated May 4, 1880.

Application filed March 15, 1880.

To all 'whom it may concern Be it known that I, JOSEPH S. LETOUR- NEAU, of Tucker, in the county of Kankakee and State of lllinois, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Lifting-Bars for Wagons, of which the following is a specification.

The object of my invention is to furnish a device for use in raising the boxes of dumping-wagons, whereby the power of the team can be used for raising a loaded box to dump it, and the labor and expense of shoveling thereby saved.

My device is especially intended for use by farmers, and with four-wheeled wagons the boxes of which are fitted for being raised at the forward end bodily; and the invention consists in bars or rods recessed at one end for taking over the wheel-spokes and formed with shoulders to take under the wagon-box, so that when said rods are applied to the forward wheels and box and the wagon backed the rods will rise and lift the box.

The invention is shown in the accompanying drawings, wherein Figure 1 is a side view of the device as applied to use. Fig. 2 is'a front view, and Fig. 3 is a side view, of the device alone.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts.

A A are the lifting-bars, which are preferably made of iron in flat form and about two inches wide. The bars A consist of the two portions, a b,'united at the ends, or of a single piece of metal, the portions (0 I) being bent at an obtuse angle. The end of a is formed with a recess, 1, and the end of b with a recess or shoulder, 2, and there is also a shoulder, 3,

(No model.)

projecting from bar A at its mid-length at the angle.

Two of the bars A are to be used with a wagon, and are to be placed, as illustrated in the drawings, with the end of a upon the lower spokes of the front wheel and the shoulders 3 beneath the wagon-body. The wagon is then to be backed, and the bars A being thereby raised by the wheels the body will be lifted to the same extent. The body is then. to be propped, which may be done by a swinging prop, d, hung on the under side of the body, so that the barsA can be removed and placed, as before, on the lower spokes and with the recess or shoulder 2 beneath the body for the purpose of giving a further lift; or by drawing the wagon forward with the box propped the bars A will drop to place for the second lift without being removed from the wheels.

By these bars a wagon-body may be readily raised to the extent required for dumping the load. The bars are adapted for use with any wagon of usual construction, it being only necessary that the forward stakes of the wagonframe be made longer than usual to guide the body as it rises.

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent- The lifting device for wagon-bodies consisting of the bent bar A, formed with the recessed end 1 and shoulders 2 and 3, substantially as shown and described.

JOSEPH S. LETOURNEAU.

Witnesses:

J. E. LANGLOIS, PETER BROSSEAU. 

